For the candidate, not receiving a response from the company is a very painful experience. Recruiting expert Deven Lall-Perry, who works as a “Talent Director” at RTM Business Group, stated that she is optimistic that she would swiftly find a new job after quitting her previous employer. As a person with a bit of reputation in the industry, after quitting her job, she received at least 10 interview invitations. Nearly half of them, though, were “ghosting” her. (Ghosting indicates that the employer has no response for the candidate.)
Instead of expressing anger, Lall-Perry said, “I put myself in their (recruiter’s) shoes and think why they did it?”
Why recruiters ghost?
Lall-Perry says there are three main reasons you’ll never hear back from a recruiter, even if they reached out to you first or you’re a perfect fit for the job.
Why recruiters ghost?
1. The company is no longer hiring for the role
This might become even more common as employers, realizing they over-hired in the first half of the year, scale back with hiring freezes or pauses through the remainder of 2022.
2. Your salary expectations are out of budget
Lall-Perry prefers to name her salary range upfront — as a recruiter, she knows it can speed up the hiring process a lot. If her number is out-of-budget, though, she may never hear back from the recruiter. This isn’t always a deal-breaker — the company may come back weeks or months later after learning what other candidates in the market are expecting and adjusting their own budget.
3. An agency recruiter is in the dark about the company’s hiring plans
This can happen if you’re working with an agency recruiter, who works on contract on behalf of the hiring employer, or a placement firm, Lall-Perry says. It’s really a breakdown in communication: a client company decides to go in another direction, or their business priorities shift, and they never pass that feedback along to the recruiter working for them.
It’s frustrating to never hear back from a recruiter after days of engaging with them or after submitting your application. Why not just send a courtesy message saying it’s not a fit, or the job is no longer open?
Lall-Perry says there are a lot of reasons this could happen that have nothing to do with you as a candidate, but rather “issues the recruiter may be dealing with inside their company but can’t broadcast to the world.”
One example, she says: “They may not have a true applicant tracking system, therefore it’s difficult for them to keep track of candidate conversations and stages.”
Why it’s still worth taking recruiter calls
Given the number of ways you can be ghosted during the hiring process, Lall-Perry says she’ll take nearly every intro call she can, even if she’s not 100% interested in the way the recruiter has pitched the job.
After all, “most of the time, the recruiter is not the hiring manager,” she says, so they may not know all the ins and outs of what the opportunity will ultimately look like. Instead, what you want to do is make it to a discussion with the hiring manager, who’ll give you a better idea of what the job is, what your priorities will be and who you’ll work with.
Lall-Perry also suggests that job seekers use LinkedIn to keep their present employment status up to date. This allows you to connect with more people in your professional network, and if they know you’re “searching for job,” you’ll get additional opportunities.
You can see how new employees of Synnex FPT announce their new jobs on LinkedIn HERE
New employees of Synnex FPT announce their new jobs on LinkedIn
